A Thousand Blows Season 2 just got a hopeful release update, which should make fans of the show very happy.
The series is a historical drama that follows the dangerous underground of Victorian London's East End in the 1880s while also exploring the rise of legitimized boxing as an actual sport—a massive change from the brutal bare-knuckled brawling that used to reign supreme.
The Direct's Russ Milheim sat down with A Thousand Blows showrunner and creator Steven Knight where he not only gave an update on Season 2, but also helped break down some key moments in Season 1.
A Thousand Blows Season 2 Gets Hopeful Release Update
"It Won't Be Long."
While A Thousand Blows Season 2 is confirmed, there is no word on when exactly the next six episodes of the show will be landing on Hulu. However, to the excitement of fans, Knight confirmed with us that Season 2's release "won't be long:"
- The Direct: "Obviously, more episodes are on their way. Are you able to tease if fans are gonna be able to see it in 2025? Are we gonna have to wait longer? You think maybe this year is a safe window?"
Steven Knight: I'm not allowed to speculate. It won't be long.
- The Direct: "That's good. I know I appreciate that, and I'm sure audiences appreciate [it too], being to go back into that world sooner rather than later. Do you have a long-term plan for the show? How long do you think you can see this show going for?"
Steven Knight: As long as it works, to keep it going, as long as it works. It's almost like the train is the world. The thing that's moving is the world that exists. And therefore, people will probably hop on and hop off, but the actual story is the world of boxing, the world of the underworld, the world of the East End, the world of the class differences, the world of the British Empire and the people who live in it. So for me, that's the thing that's moving forward, and who knows how far that came now,
Steven Knight on the Historical Accuracy of A Thousand Blows
"Whatever Seems Completely Unbelievable and Ridiculous Is True."
- The Direct: "You mentioned the historical elements of it [all]. And as someone that doesn't know much about this period of history, I wanted to ask, how accurate is the general show compared to what parts are completely fiction? And where do you find that line of where you want to maintain accuracy, and where you're okay deviating?"
Steven Knight: As a general rule, whatever seems completely unbelievable and ridiculous is true. And whatever seems like, you know, oh, yeah, that would happen, is made up... We have someone called Hezekiah Moscow who comes to London from Jamaica because he wants to be a lion tamer; you can't make that up.
And then becomes an incredibly successful bare-knuckle boxer, and in the end, is sort of declared the heavyweight champion of the world, which, again, you can't make up. At the same time, there's a group of 40 female gangsters, and there's always 40 of them, and they call themselves the 40 elephants, and they're run by a queen called Mary Carr. None of this you would dare make up. All of that is real.
The fact that they used to go to Harrods and Selfridges on mass, caused chaos and just stole so many clothes and fur coats and hats that when they left, they looked like elephants. And so they were called the elephants. Again, you can't make that up. The more serious stuff about the brothers Sugar and Treacle, of course, [and they] have this massive fight towards the end. So all of that is true, and it's like taking those stepping stones and finding a way between them.
And of course, the fiction is what I wanted to do was to imagine that a real person, Hezekiah Moscow and a real person, Mary Carr, who were in London at the same time, imagine what would have happened if they'd met, because there is absolutely no proof that they didn't meet. So, therefore, we can play with that.
- The Direct: "Alec, did he die, and is that based on accuracy in history?"
Steven Knight: Absolutely. And when he died, he was given, in England [what] is known as an East End funeral. In other words, the streets were lined with East Enders watching the coffin go by. So he made an impact, and he was Hezekiah's best friend, but Alec was killed in a knife fight in a work house when he was drunk.
Sugar Goodson Hates Prestige Boxing—But Why?
"I Wanted to Make This Sort of About Class..."
- The Direct: "Stephen Graham is great as Sugar Goodson, and he really does not like this new attempt to legitimize boxing. Can you help break down in your own words why everything about that movement goes against his very being?"
Steven Knight: I think that I wanted to make this sort of about class, which is a very unfashionable thing, and has been for a while, and that the idea that the central characters, race and gender are less important in terms of what they have in common than where they are and the circumstance they find themselves in.
So, Sugar Goodson represents the old sort of East End working class sensibility, and at that time, that meant bare-knuckle boxing. You know, he was frivolous to put gloves on. It was like weakness, which is so insane because anybody who's ever seen real bear knuckle boxing, it is horrifically brutal.
And, at that time, the Marques of Queensbury and the Earl of Lonsdale in the West End of London were attempting to make boxing the sweet science, putting gloves on people and hoping that sort of military officers would be boxing each other, and also the crowd were meant to be silent.
And if anybody made a noise, somebody would tell them to be quiet, and it was like a completely—but because this thing is about what it's about, this idea that the whole topic of the series can be symbolized with a pair of gloves was such a gift. If you put the gloves on, you're giving into that if you don't put the gloves on, you're still there. It may implore it quite simply.
- The Direct: "Sugar's problems with it gets so big it even gets to a point that, you know, he beats his own brother for even daring to slip further into it without him. Would you say that their brotherhood is kind of shattered forever? Is that unrecoverable?"
Steven Knight: We'll see in [Season 2], which is shot, as you know, but the amazing thing is that fight is real. That really happened.
The fight between those two brothers actually took place in a church, and it was a very brutal fight, and Treacal was nearly killed, you know, historically, that's the case.
And so, when you get a destination like that, in a relationship like that, as a writer, you got to work out, how did that happen? How did they come to that point, and then how did they reconcile afterwards, which they, it's not really a spoiler, which they did.
- The Direct: "One of the most interesting elements of the series to me, is that tenuous dynamic that Sugar and Hezekiah have. But in that last episode, the entire situation is, in a way, flipped on its head. What's going through Sugar's mind as he pours Hezekiah that drink? That's it's a moment that he probably never thought would happen, to just a casually poor drink for his mortal enemy."
Steven Knight: He is his moral enemy. But I think earlier on, when they look at each other, he knows that he's himself. He's looking at a reflection of himself. So that relationship continues through [Season 2], as you can imagine, and it's taking real events and imagining how the real characters would have behaved in that situation, but not like imagining how they would have behaved in terms of fiction... What really, really, really probably happened.
There's such a difference between, okay, let's do the fiction version of this, where there are certain rules, there's an arc, there's a beginning, middle and end, and you know, you have to satisfy that. But what really, really happens is always so awkward and bonkers, sort of.
You know, that doesn't make sense, and that's it. Wherever possible, try to keep the not making sense-ness there. I think is important, because people think it's clever. Yeah, it's actually not clever at all. It's just wow.
- The Direct: "Can you tease how their relationship might look going forward? Is this still going to be tenuous? Like, there's definitely no [movement] towards friendship for those two? Or is it just kind of right now a moment of calm before the storm, would you say?"
Steven Knight: I think friendship is a big word... I don't think we're heading there...
- The Direct: "I haven't asked a question about Mary Carr, who's also great. Her whole world is flipped upside down, and, in a way, she's humiliated by everything happening. At the end of the season, where is Mary mentally? Where would you say she is compared to when the series first found her?"
Steven Knight: I would say that to begin with, here is someone who, I mean, the real, Mary Carr, had an incredibly brutal life upbringing, from when she was born, the moment she was born, it was tough.
So, I imagine she's a person that closed down or possibility of trusting other people, so therefore, hard, hard, hard exterior. Don't let anybody in. Don't let anybody in. It's dangerous. Don't let anybody in. She let somebody in and is proven right... So, [Season 2] will be, let's explore the second time that might happen.
The full interview can be viewed here:
A Thousand Blows is now streaming on Hulu.
Be sure to check out The Direct's previous conversation with show stars Stephen Graham and Malachi Kirby!
